3-year-old boy killed at Hit and Run in Queens

A 3-year-old boy was killed in a collision in Queens on Wednesday evening, the 11th child killed by a car in New York City this year.

The boy, Quintas Chen, was walking along College Point Boulevard near 41st Avenue in the Flushing neighborhood when he was struck by the driver’s side tire of a white sedan as it pulled away from the curb, according to police. He fell to the ground, police said, and the driver continued south on College Point Boulevard.

Quintas was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.

Councilman Ron Kim, who represents the neighborhood where the collision occurred, said Quintas had been walking home with his father after a doctor’s appointment. The boy crossed in front of the sedan as it pulled away from the curb, where it was illegally parked, he said.

“His father said he saw the car leaving the parking lot and even tried to make it clear to the driver that there was a child there. He was screaming,” Mr. Kim said.

Although authorities have not identified the driver of the sedan, a 2014 Infiniti Q50, the vehicle was found parked a few blocks away and seized by police, authorities said.

Quintas’ death occurred about a month after a 7-year-old boy was killed by a city tow truck on a Brooklyn street and just hours before Mayor Eric Adams announced an initiative to make the city’s streets safer for pedestrians. The mayor called for removing parking at intersections and increasing the number of city vehicles, including school buses, with speed-limiting devices.

According to police, 90 pedestrians have been killed in New York City so far this year, compared to 106 during the same period last year. Eleven children have been killed this year, according to the organization Transportation Alternatives.

There have been 80 pedestrian deaths in Queens alone, a Transportation Alternatives spokeswoman said, making 2023 the deadliest year for pedestrians in the borough since 2014. There have been eight fatalities on College Point Boulevard since 2015, she said.

College Point Boulevard and the block where Quintas was killed have long been known by local residents as a dangerous area, Mr. Kim said.

He said he had walked the boulevard with his children almost every morning for the past six years. “I’ve yelled at my kids in that area a number of times,” Mr. Kim said, explaining that the block serves as an entrance to a parking lot and that cars drive along the sidewalk all the time.

For Amy Tam-Liao and her husband, Hsi-Pei Liao, who lost their three-year-old daughter Allison in a collision in the same neighborhood in 2013, learning of Quintas’ death brought back painful memories.

“It was just an outpouring of feelings because it was so close to home,” said Ms Tam-Liao, 46, co-founder of the campaign group Families for Safe Streets. “I had the feeling: this has happened again and another family is going home without their child, even though this could be prevented.”